Horsham District Council is currently consulting on its next strategic planning document setting out the Councils Development plans for the next 20 years, as required by the Government. The main proposal it contains is the building of 2,500 new houses together with a 500,000 square foot business park, a supermarket and possibly a new station and secondary school. This would be located in the countryside north of the A264. The plans have been met with opposition from the public and some local council members.

Your district councillors, Roy and Simon agree that there is a need for development. We need new housing and places of work, to keep our towns and villages alive and prevent house prices becoming even more unaffordable. However, they believe that there are far better sites than those that have been proposed in the council’s consultation document, including brownfield sites.

The strategic gap between Horsham and Crawley, now that the Kilnwood Vale development has commenced on the edge of Crawley, has been reduced to as little as two miles. There should be no further erosion of our beautiful countryside in our green belt that preserves the separate identities of the towns of Horsham and Crawley. The joining of the towns of Horsham and Crawley to create ‘Craw-sham’, often joked about, is actually happening.

It was why the A264 by-pass was strategically placed where it was, an impenetrable boundary stretching between the Great Daux roundabout to the Moorhead roundabout in Roffey. The express intention of the council has been from that day that there shall not be any development beyond it. Once that boundary is breached there is nothing to stop further development spreading north.

The proposed North Horsham development would create a soulless community divorced from our historic market town of Horsham, separated by the by-pass. This is not building a community. This is not about creating space for people to inhabit and spend time in. This is existence living around a supermarket and an industrial park, which will be closed at weekends.
It is proposed that there will be a new station within the development but this will mean that Roffey residents will suffer the downgrading of Littlehaven station with fewer, if any, fast trains to London.

If the development happens it will have a massive impact on the A24, A264 and other local roads. Everyone who is familiar with those roads in rush hour will know that the traffic is bad enough as it is. The Council’s Preferred Strategy does not address this issue nor provide solutions for it

The consultation period runs until 11 October 2013. We urge all residents to write to the council to give their views on this building on our green belt. If you wish to comment please go onto the HDC website (horsham.gov.uk) or send an email to strategic.planning@horsham.gov.uk.